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He was traded from a team that had just won its second Stanley Cup in four years to an organization that has never won a playoff game but there were no complaints from Michael Frolik.

For the 25-year-old from Kladno, Czech Republic, moving to Winnipeg from Chicago meant a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream of playing with his best childhood friend, Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec.

"When we were little, we never thought it would come true," Frolik said after the Jets second day of training camp Friday at the IcePlex. "If somebody told me before, we were going to make it to the NHL together, I wouldn't believe him.

"It's awesome to be with him here because we always talked before about how it would be nice to play in the NHL together and now it happened and we are both excited."

The Jets are excited about having Frolik, whom they acquired from the Blackhawks in a trade shortly after Chicago won the Cup in June.

Besides being a proven checker who has twice scored 20 goals in the NHL, the right winger brings an intangible that could help give the Jets a push toward the playoffs.

Frolik has 61 goals and 151 points in 349 NHL games, as well as seven goals and 18 points in 34 career playoff games. He earned a great deal of praise for his defensive play in the playoffs last year.

"He brings a lot," said Jets centre Olli Jokinen, who played on a line with Frolik and Matt Halischuk during training camp sessions Thursday and Friday. "He knows what it takes to be on a winning team and he knows how to play good hockey in April and May. He's been there, he's done that.

"He brings a lot of speed to our lineup. He's a great player who can score but he also knows what it takes to be a part of a good team."

While the Jets will welcome Frolik's defensive responsibility, they are likely counting on him to show some of the scoring he flashed early in his career with the Florida Panthers. Heading into the exhibition season, the Jokinen-Halischuk-Frolik unit is pegged as the Jets third line and it will be expected to provide its fair share of offence.

"In the past I kinda proved I can play both ways "¦ A good defensive role and good offence too," Frolik said. "I'm ready for both roles.

"I won last year so I want to give the guys some experience that I had on the road to the Cup. It was a fun ride. I want to give the guys some advice, especially the young guys. I want to help the team win some games and do the role the coaches set for me."

Frolik is optimistic about the Jets chances to find success despite moving to the Western Conference, with its tighter checking and bigger bodies.

"Every team is hard to play against," Frolik said. "But the expectations are as high as they can be, to go as far as we can. You can see the pressure here but the pressure was pretty high in Chicago too and, personally, I don't mind it."

Frolik's ability to handle pressure in a fish bowl will be welcomed by Noel, who already has a couple of Stanley Cup winners on his roster in captain Andrew Ladd and defenceman Dustin Byfuglien.

"It's really good," Noel said. "You always try to gather experience from those players. (Frolik) certainly knows that Chicago dressing room and what it takes so we certainly expect him to give us a good insight into what it takes to win in that division."

Jets hope Frolik's Cup experience rubs off

He was traded from a team that had just won its second Stanley Cup in four years to an organization that has never won a playoff game but there were no complaints from Michael Frolik.

For the 25-year-old from Kladno, Czech Republic, moving to Winnipeg from Chicago meant a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream of playing with his best childhood friend, Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec.

"When we were little, we never thought it would come true," Frolik said after the Jets second day of training camp Friday at the IcePlex. "If somebody told me before, we were going to make it to the NHL together, I wouldn't believe him.

"It's awesome to be with him here because we always talked before about how it would be nice to play in the NHL together and now it happened and we are both excited."

The Jets are excited about having Frolik, whom they acquired from the Blackhawks in a trade shortly after Chicago won the Cup in June.

At the end of the high-energy, physical shootout loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, my immediate thought was that if the Winnipeg Jets can play at that level for the final 19 games of the season they will surely make the playoffs.